Paul Shaffer: C or D

http://www.tisziji.com/tisziji/gallery/photopages/photos/thumbs/t ispaul.jpg

If that show is any indication, then Tisziji (whom I'd never seen before - apparently he only plays out about once a year) is a veritable force of nature live. He plays electric guitar, but he doesn't spend any time fiddling with pedals or effects. He plays with a classic Fender amp sound, not too much distortion, but enough to give a rock flavor to his licks. His playing is in a Coltrane- esque "sheets of sound" vein. He plays very fast runs and jumps effortlessly around the fretboard. His playing is very organic and responds to what the other players are doing. (The rest of the group, btw, was great.) He seems to move between modal jams and more "out" interludes, but he is rarely dissonant and often surprisingly melodic. I think he has a pretty accessible sound. Apart from his playing itself, he exudes a kind of benevolent charm on-stage. He is fond of saying things like: "I play rarely, but I love all the time" or "You are all Buddhas". That may sound pretentious, but he is goofy and graceful enough to make it work. Combined with the presence of his devoted fan base, the concert almost took on the feeling of a spiritual gathering. Definitely worth checking out if you are a fan of free jazz or electric guitar.

man there have got to be some really good stories about the World's Most Dangerous Band/CBS Orchestra and all the late-night new york city shenanigans they got into after the show. especially during the 80's and especially because paul shaffer just strikes me as insane. also cause nobody parties like studio musicians, and i would imagine a steady network paycheck doesn't really change things as much as it just enhances them. i mean the horn section is high as a kite on a nightly basis, you can just tell. all hanging out in the back, all raising their hands all the time and stuff.

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/d8/98/06ab124128a02ef072433010.L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

legend has it one of the two pauls was supposed to represent his alter-ego, warren zevon (tony clifton to paul's andy kaufman). the "coasts" in the title represented the coasts of the great lakes, since paul was from thunder bay (the northernmost point of the great lakes) and warren was from chicago (their southernmost point).

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0200261/

Shaffer is not a dud, though he played one on TV - the ham who backed up Bill Murray's even hammier lounge singer, and then a version of that character as Letterman's bandleader. I've come around in my thinking on him enough to vote Classic.

I rarely noticed him on SNL but detested him through the early Letterman years for two main reasons: (1) I didn't yet regard as schtick the schmaltzy shmoozing showbiz aspects of his persona and I thought that while Letterman was gleefully tearing apart so much of what felt fake on TV at the time, Shaffer was all that fakeness personified (thus I failed to see (a) the need for such lameness to be personified on the show each night, to give Letterman the perfect strawman as straightman, and (b) as schtick, his smarmy patter was a more subtle takedown of the same tropes his boss was going after by direct assault, so (c) host and bandleader were actually well matched & were working in tandem, with surface stylistic differences masking (for me anyway) deeper affinities); and (2) I somewhat cynically dismissed his jack of all trades style and unironic embrace of R-n-R hall of fame cliches as a lack of an aesthetic, more wedding band than rock band, neglecting both (a) his obviously genuine appreciation and love for so much great music (the value of some of which escaped me in my younger days) and (b) his also genuine thrill at his good fortune to be working as a professional musician and playing with so many others he admires deeply. But I think I get it now.

"I'm not ASKing i'm TELLing you..."